When we were kids,...--even till 73 n 74--, a trampish sort of man used to go around in Bandar ,begging for food...May be still some people can remember him for he was quite a mysterious character...A frail looking man, emaciated from want,he used to carry a biig bundle of rags on his back... yes..rags...no diamonds or currency hidden in folds...They were just rags as one can easily see through.......I always wondered why he carried this additional burden...We, kids were simultaneously fascinated and frightened with this person"s Dickensian appearance-(-he did exactly look like the sketches of villains in Dickens"s novels---dark,smeared with mud,and serious---)I never saw him smile..
Some said he was insane...A bandaru pichadu..Our cook, satyanarayana used to say such people are called MUSTHS..a kind of leftist spiritual seekers...People who have given up the mundane world and sought god by leading a lonely life as mendicants... When he was not on streets, he stayed at the backside of the Gangaanamma gudi at the Thadepalli vari satram..resting with his sooty backpack..in sun ,in the rains of a bandar storms and cold...
Whenever he arrived at our doorstep,i ran in and brought almost pavu seru measure of rice and gave it to him...all the while trembling with fear...He used to accept it with an inscrutable face and move off...
Once, when i was out of station, it seems he arrived at our door and begged for alms..It was a busy time and my people told him to move off...Then ,strangely, he said that he came in to see the little girl who gave him alms and not for food...My people smiled over this and did give him something after all but i was pleasantly surprised when i came to know this...
Some time later i heard that he was found murdered near the backside of the ganganamma gudi where he usually stayed ..by unknown assailants...I still keep remembering him...
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